Cruz basks in news of Boehner’s resignation

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) basked in Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) resignation announcement, saying that Republicans had failed to deliver on any of their electoral promises under his leadership.

Speaking Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, the 2016 presidential hopeful learned of Boehner’s resignation announcement from reporters while standing at a lectern during a press conference on religious liberty.

{mosads}“I have long said leadership decisions are decisions to be made by the House, but I have also long called on Republican leadership … to actually stand up and honor the commitments that we made to the American people,” Cruz said.

“There’s a frustration across this country,” he added. “It’s not complicated to understand why. Every election Republicans promise to fight for American principles, and then the day after the election we come to Washington and we don’t fight for any of the principles we said we’d fight for.”

Cruz has made Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) two of his primary targets on the campaign trail, accusing them of colluding with Democrats to push President Obama’s agenda.

Most recently, he’s been itching for a fight with leadership over defunding Planned Parenthood — even at the cost of a government shutdown.

On Friday, Cruz blasted leadership, accusing them of failing to hold their ground in other fights important to conservatives.

“We’ve had Republican majorities in both houses of Congress for coming up on a year now, and what on Earth have they accomplished?” he asked.

“Immediately after the elections we came back and leadership joined with Harry Reid in passing a spending bill filled with corporate welfare,” Cruz said. “Then Republican leadership took the lead in funding ObamaCare. Then they took the lead in funding executive amnesty. Then they took the lead in funding Planned Parenthood. And then Republican leadership took the lead in confirming Loretta Lynch as attorney general.”

He also said the “early reports” about Boehner’s plan for resolving the shutdown fight are “discouraging.”

“If it is correct that the Speaker, before he resigns, has cut a deal with Nancy Pelosi to fund the Obama administration for the rest of its tenure, to fund ObamaCare, to fund executive amnesty, to fund Planned Parenthood, to fund implementation of this Iran deal and then presumably land in a cushy K Street job after joining with the Democrats to implement all of President Obama’s priorities, that is not the behavior one would expect of the Republican Speaker of the House.”

Cruz declined to say whether he believes McConnell should also step down.

“That’s a question for Leader McConnell and for the Republican conference,” he said.

The Texas Republican insisted that he doesn’t have it in for either Boehner or McConnell, but said his disagreements with them stem merely from his view that they refuse to fight for conservative principles.

“I’ve privately urged them to stand up and lead and told them if they did, I would sing their praises,” Cruz said. “I would be thrilled to hold a press conference and talk about the brave, principled John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, if they would simply act in a way that I could say those things.”

Cruz said he’s tired of the excuse that Republicans must run every branch of government to get anything done, but he said he’s working to ensure they maintain majorities in both chambers in 2017 and take the White House.

“We were told that if only we were to have a Republican House of Representatives we could get something done, so in 2010 millions of us rose up and we did,” Cruz said. “Then we were told that the problem is the Senate, so in 2014 millions of us rose up and we won a landslide election.

“Now we’re told … we have to wait until 2017.”

“You will understand why voters feel a little bit like Charlie Brown and Lucy pulling the football away,” he continued. “ ‘Give us this election and then we’ll do it.’ I will say this: If it is the position of Republican leadership that they will fight just as soon as we have a Republican president, well then I’m happy to do everything I can to oblige them.”

— This story was updated at 11:17 a.m. Ben Kamisar contributed.